Background

I'm an unusual mix of sense and brain.  Mostly sense.

Education and experience

I qualified as a general and children's nurse at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital in the early eighties, eventually specialising in children's intensive care at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. Whilst there I nursed the first ever children to have liver transplants in the UK, learning how to deal with the attendant media exposure along the way.

By the late nineties I had a first degree - a Cambridge M.A. in biological anthropology, then a Cambridge Ph.D. in cot death (which lead to a totally unexpected near miss with Roger Cook, the bruiser journalist) and an M.Sc. in Science Communication from Imperial College, London.

If you, or I, get very desperate there's a vague memory that I could drag up and mine for ideas - my Certificate in Tropical Medicine and Certificate in Basic Laboratory Experience and Parasite Diagnosis from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1988.

As a result of my first-hand experience I know more than can possibly be useful about such disparate areas as intensive care, prostate cancer, cot death, the introduction of the potato to Bavaria in the 18th Century, the teeth of non-human primates and how service delivery functions in health charities.

Working life

As well as experience in the health, medical and charity sectors I was recently appointed for three years as a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Gerontology, King's College, London to facilitate my interests in older people and inequalities in health, particularly in cancer care.

For much of the last decade I have worked in policy and research at The Prostate Cancer Charity so I have a good grip of the policy  agenda in cancer.

All that prompts a range of writing ideas.  Bail out now to interests to see them or take a deep breath and push bravely on for yet more about my background.

Writing

I have written in a wide range of styles.  There's been

  • a piece on prostate cancer in the Daily Express under my own name when I was a full time charity employee. 
  • published comments for the Press and online media on behalf of The Prostate Cancer Charity,
  • a book chapter in a cardio-respiratory nursing text book
  • award winning patient information
  • website copy
  • and even text about prostate cancer that appeared in a British Lions rugby tour programme.
  • the prostate cancer chapter in the 'Cancer' edition of the popular 'Haynes Owner's Manual' series for men, lead by the Men's Health Forum. 
  • published peer reviewed academic medical papers in e.g. the BMJ, amongst others.

TV and Radio

I have modest experience and some training as a media spokesperson, both live and pre-recorded, for TV and radio.  I have occasionally appeared on the terrestrial TV channels, Sky and News 24, in news studio, down-the-line and daytime TV couch appearances.  National and regional radio forms the rest of this experience.

Fundamental style

I'm strong on the importance of the evidence base, as my approach is from a conventional medical scientific point of view.  However, I'll always cover medical science and 'how we know' with a friendly rather than geeky face.  That's the nurse in me.

I'm pretty much ready for anything you might need on health and medicine. However, Munch's 'The Scream' represents my internal response when politely declining any requests to write about complementary and alternative therapies.  Unless it's an opinion piece you want, or an essay on how evidence works.

I have no interest in twaddle based diets or nutritional supplements and I value thought over sentimentality.